Ether (ETH) has taken over Bitcoin (BTC) in the options market for the first time in history as the open interest (OI) of Deribit Ether options, with a value of $5.6 billion, exceeded the OI of Bitcoin options worth $4.6 billion by 32%.
OI is calculated by adding all the contracts from opened trades and subtracting the contracts when a trade is closed. It is used as an indicator to determine market sentiment and the strength behind price trends. Deribit is the world’s biggest BTC and ETH options exchange, accounting for more than 90% of the global trading volume.
The data from the Deribit exchange highlighted that ETH options are mainly call options, with a put/call ratio of 0.26. The ETH Put/Call ratio has hit a new yearly low as the Merge date nears.
Under the put option, buyers have the right but not the obligation to sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. Overall, put buyers are…